None of the Above
by Ginrai
Summary: Ranma has made his choice. But just who is it?


None of the Above  
A Ranma 1/2 fanfic  
by Ginrai  
  
C&C appreciated - ranmafics@hotmail.com  
  
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and its characters are property of Rumiko  
Takahashi.  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
"_What_ did you say?" Akane asked Ranma, as she gave him a look of  
disbelief and promised pain.  
  
"Yes, Ranchan. Just what did you mean by that?" Ukyou asked, giving  
him the same look.  
  
"Shampoo know Airen just joking. Airen not choose someone other than  
Shampoo." Shampoo held up her bonbori to show Ranma just how much she  
liked his joke.  
  
Seeing the look the three girls gave him, Ranma backed away a bit  
before answering. "Actually, it's true. I can't marry any of you  
because... because I'm in love with someone else." He felt a little  
better having said that, though the looks on each of his former fiancee  
promised even more pain than before.  
  
"Who... who is it?" Akane asked, afraid of whom his choice might be,  
but nevertheless curious about it.  
  
Suddenly Ukyou ran up to Ranma, grabbed her ex-fiance by the shirt and  
started shaking him. "How could you?! Why choose Kodachi?!"  
  
The other two girls were stunned when they realized that Kodachi, in  
fact, was _not_ with them for this announcement.  
  
"But..."  
  
"What is so good about her and those damn shady roses?!"  
  
"Actually, I..."  
  
"She never listens to you. She doesn't even know about the curse! At  
least choose someone that listens and understands you. Someone like  
me!"  
  
Seeing that Ranma was never going to be able to say anything while  
being shook by Ukyou, Akane and Shampoo pulled her away from him.  
  
"Why would I choose Kodachi? I don't even want her to know that I made  
a choice. I mean, she scares me!"  
  
"Ranma, father said that you had to marry a Tendou. It doesn't have to  
be me. Did you choose Kasumi?" Akane felt sad when saying this. In  
her mind it was obvious that Ranma chose her oldest sister. She was  
always the calm one and maybe he just wanted a peaceful life.  
  
"Kasumi? No. She's nice and all, but love and marriage between us  
wouldn't work. Sometimes she's just too nice. I need someone that's  
willing to actually tell me that I'm doing something wrong."  
  
"So Airen choose mercenary sister?"  
  
Before anything else could be said, Ranma replied. "Nabiki?! That  
would be a very scary thought! The only thing she's ever cared about  
was how much money she can make by using me. _She_ would need time to  
make a choice for love or money. I mean, I'd rather marry Mr. Tendou  
to have the schools united. Not that I'm ever gonna let such a thing  
control my decision."  
  
"So you're in love with a guy, Ranchan?" Ukyou started to mentally  
curse herself. If I only kept dressing like a guy. Ranchan would  
then still be in love with me and not... "Is it Ryouga?" In a sick  
sort of way, it made sense. They just _had_ to be some type of fated  
couple.  
  
"NO!!!" Ranma screamed after letting the shock get through his system.  
"I don't care about Ryouga that way! Let him have a boring life with  
Akari!"  
  
"Mousse no bother Shampoo for a while. Maybe he go crazy and fall in  
love with Airen girl side? He probably think that love at first  
sight."  
  
"Come to think of it, Kunou hasn't been around me lately. Not that I  
don't like that. Do you think that he's somehow erased Ranma's  
memories and made him believe that they're in a state of bliss  
together?"  
  
"Will you girls stop thinking like that?!" Ranma was beginning to  
think that maybe he shouldn't have told them and that he should have  
just ran away. Though, considering their persistence, it would have  
resulted in a long and winding road and possibly even a bitter end.  
  
For a moment Akane thought that Ranma was 'keeping it in the family' or  
so to speak. But she immediately shook herself of such thoughts.  
Ranma wasn't _that_ lonely at heart.  
  
"Maybe Airen enter the Phoenix." Shampoo suggested. The others gave  
her a look of confusion. "Never mind."  
  
When hearing the word 'phoenix', Akane thought of someone else. "Is it  
Kiima?" she asked reluctantly. Could he have actually won the heart of  
the phoenix guard? The fact that Kiima once tried to kill her  
depressed Akane even more.  
  
"Haven't seen Kiima since Mount Phoenix. And I wouldn't know what to  
do if I did see her."  
  
Seeing their list getting shorter, their thoughts started to get a bit  
more unique. "D... do you like animals?" one of the girls asked,  
though Ranma wasn't sure who.  
  
"Umm... sort of." Ranma couldn't imagine why they would ask him such a  
question at this point.  
  
This caused the girls to look at each other before staring back at him.  
  
"Ranchan, is it a dog?" Seeing Ranma's expressionless face, Ukyou  
jumped to the logical conclusion. "It is, isn't it? Why does it  
always have to be a dog?!" Ukyou then screamed out, lamenting on it  
being the unusual couple, "There is no such thing as justice!"  
  
"It has to be P-chan." Akane said, her face showing even more pain than  
before. They both always did seem to fight whenever they were seen  
together and that usually is the first sign of true love. It just  
wasn't fair. "Damn it, Ranma, you can't have him. _I'm_ P-chan's  
lover!"  
  
"Shampoo think Neko-Ken change Airen's mind. Make him love robot with  
brain of cat."  
  
Ranma slowly started to back away from the girls, shaking his head  
while doing so. "Umm... none of the above. What I want is someone who  
won't hold me down and make me stay in one place. Someone who's good  
at martial arts and has a strong will."  
  
"Someone like you?"  
  
"Yes. That's exactly what I mean."  
  
A cry of 'Pervert!' followed by a severe beating could be heard.  
  
Slowly getting up, Ranma looked at the three irate girls. "What was  
that for?!"  
  
"It's obvious, Ranma," Akane started.  
  
"Airen use water from Spring of Drowned Twins, creating boy-Airen and  
girl-Airen."  
  
"After which the girl Ranchan will be named 'Ranko'."  
  
"Who, being your dream girl, you will then marry."  
  
"Where did you come up with such a messed up idea?! Just why would I  
even want to marry myself?" Ranma couldn't believe how the girls were  
acting. The more he heard them, the more he realized that it was for  
the better that he hadn't chosen any of them.  
  
"You look stressed out, Ranma-chan"  
  
Hearing the new voice, the girls turned to see a blue-haired girl that  
was around their age. Her movement gave away the fact that she was a  
martial artist and possibly a good one.  
  
"Who you?" Shampoo asked. The other girl seemed familiar, even Amazon-  
like. She just looked back at Shampoo and smiled.  
  
"Cologne-chan!" Ranma shouted out as he ran to hug the girl.  
  
"Wha..."  
  
"Cologne?!"  
  
"Great-grandmother?!"  
  
Ranma looked back at them as if they were crazy. "Of course. I mean,  
she knows more martial arts than any of us, even Happosai. She'll know  
when I need to be disciplined. Plus, she is cute." Ranma blushed  
after saying the last bit.  
  
"Great-grandmother, why?"  
  
"None of you girls seemed to be getting any closer to him. One day he  
came to the Nekohanten and asked for my help in improving his martial  
arts. After that I usually helped him out at night. As time went on,  
we got to know more about each other. Ranma started to see me as the  
mother he couldn't have. And I started to fall in love with him. It  
came to the point where I was willing to give up being matriarch just  
to be with him."  
  
"But how you become young? Spring of Drowned Girl no work that way."  
  
"It was a process that involved things that I don't want Ranma-chan to  
hear. I'll just say that it involved us being naked. I did ease the  
pain for him as much as I could and after it was over I erased any  
knowledge he had of it."  
  
The three girls just stared at Ranma, all of them speechless.  
  
"I guess that's all. Nothing else to say. I'm... well I'm sorry if  
any of you are disappointed. And... have a nice life!"  
  
With that, Ranma and Cologne ran off into the sunset, both holding  
hands.  
  
Akane, Shampoo, and Ukyou watched as the two lovebirds ran off. And  
they stood, motionless and still in complete disbelief. This continued  
as the wind blew their hair around and went on as day became night.  
Only when the crickets started to chirp were all three able to express  
any sort of reaction.  
  
"RANMA NO BAKA!"  
  
--------------------------------------------  
  
I think this is about the right time to send this fic. Then again,  
maybe not ^_^  
  
Thanks to Vince for providing me with an allusion to 'Roses of Shadow'.  
  
The following are the fics that I referred to (for those that are  
interested in knowing whether they noticed all of them):  
  
A Peaceful Life by Gary Kleppe  
Justice  
Unusual Couple  
http://www.akane.org/gary/comics.html  
  
A Very Scary Thought by Jim Bader  
http://millennium.fortunecity.com/firemansam/457/jimbader.html  
  
Bitter End by Zen  
The Long and Winding Road  
http://www.mindspring.com/~databank/fanfics.html  
  
Bliss by Lara Bartram and Mike Loader  
http://www.thekeep.org/~mike/transp.html  
  
Enter the Phoenix by DB Sommer  
http://members.tripod.com/lwf58/fan_fiction/d_b_sommer/index.html  
  
For Love or Money by Donny Cheng  
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/4537  
  
Lonely at Heart by Zenki  
http://fanfic.tass-anime.com/Lemon/ranma.lemon.lonely-at-heart  
  
Love and Marriage by Anand Rao  
http://www.gsm.uci.edu/~arao02/do.htm  
  
Love at First Site by Michael Fetter  
Schools United  
http://www.geocities.com/jehtek/  
  
Messed Up by Hawk  
http://www.geocities.com/tenma83/  
  
P-chans Lover by Ryoucilo (I think)  
http://lefty.simplenet.com/svam/mstings/PChan-Lover.txt  
  
Ranma and the Heart of the Phoenix by Vince Seifert  
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/seifertv/toth/other.htm  
  
Roses of Shadow by Richard Lawson  
http://www.sterman.org/ 


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